1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to collaborative computing environments and, in particular, to managing memberships in a collaborative computing environment community through an invitation process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Collaborative computing provides a means for users to pool their strengths and experiences to achieve a common goal. For example, a common goal may be an educational objective, the completion of a software development project or even creation and use of a system to manage human resources. The establishment of a collaborative computing environment typically involves the creation or definition of a community. The community provides the framework under which the collaborative computing objective is achieved.
A collaborative computing community is defined by (1) a particular context, i.e. the objective of the community, (2) membership, i.e., the participants in the community, and (3) a set of roles for the community members. Roles are names given to the people in the community which dictate access to the community's resources and tools as well as define the behavior of the community members. Community creators or administrators may desire that the specific roles have specific access and policy attributes for the different business components, i.e. tools, resources, etc. within the community.
Collaborative computing environment users can become members of a community instance within the environment in one of two ways. First, users can become members by having an administrator configure the environment and community to add the user as a member. Second, the user may be an existing or new user within the environment and may end up joining the community as a member of a group if the group joins the community. Groups are made up of multiple users who typically share a common interest. For example, the marketing group may include all users who are in the marketing department. In the latter case, an administrator likely added the group to the community so the user may have had no idea that he or she became a community member other that the sudden influx of junk or other unwanted email and other correspondence such as the arrival of a weekly email subscribed to by the marketing group. This arrangement leads to unhappy community members.
Current systems do not allow users who are members of a community by virtue of their inclusion in a group to terminate membership in the absence of having an administrator remove them. Also, current systems using opt-in email send email to all users of a group that has opted in. As such, the member may continue to be bombarded with unwanted email and other correspondence as a result of the membership. This “pollution” can detract from the community and collaborative computing experience and can be frustrating to users who are put in the position of having to track down an administrator to made changes to the member's account or remove the member. Additionally, administrators who add these groups have no way to determine which members of the group are interested and actively participating in the community.
It is desirable to have a method and system which overcomes the above-described deficiencies and which allows users greater control over their memberships in a collaborative computing community. It is particularly desirable to have a method and system which provides users within a collaborative computing community group the ability to manage their membership in the community in a manner which is separate from the management of the group and the group's membership in the community.